Roger Bootle, one of the City of London’s best-known economists addressed the Rutland Biz Club at their February lunch, held at the Oriental Club in London.

Roger, who founded Capital Economics in 1999, has a long and distinguished record of successfully forecasting major events and market movements, often in contrast to the prevailing orthodoxy of the time. This includes perceiving that real estate markets were caught up in a bubble before the Great Recession, foreseeing the serious impact of the credit crunch and the collapse of the dotcom boom, predicting that the UK would be forced out of the ERM in 1992 and, in contrast to the official Treasury line and most forecasters, predicting that inflation and interest rates would fall.

As well as running Capital Economics, Roger is also a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. He was formerly Group Chief Economist of HSBC and, under the previous Conservative government, was appointed one of the Chancellor’s panel of Independent Economic Advisers, the so-called ‘Wise Men’. In 2012, Roger and a team from Capital Economics won the Wolfson Prize, the second biggest prize in Economics after the Nobel.

Roger studied at Oxford University and then became a Lecturer in Economics at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Most of his subsequent career has been spent in the City of London.

Roger, who appears frequently on television and radio and is also a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph, has written many articles and several books on monetary economics. His latest book, The Trouble with Europe analyses what has gone wrong with the EU and what needs to be done to put it right.

Biz Club President Geoffrey Pointon said: “The February meeting of the Biz Club moved from its usual location at the Falcon Hotel in Uppingham to the Oriental Club in London to hear one of the foremost economists of the day. Listening to Roger’s insights into the current economic climate and the potential impact of Brexit was a privilege for attendees to hear. Held at one of the oldest and foremost private members clubs in London made it a very special occasion.”